Santiago Cabrera: In the Limelight

Better known nowadays as Isaac Mendez, an artist who can paint the future, on NBC's hit series Heroes, 28-year-old Santiago Cabrera hasn't been in the business for long.

Cabrera actually shares similarities with actor Andrew Shue who, like Cabrera, wanted to be a soccer star first but ended up becoming an actor. Cabrera even played soccer for three years on a scholarship and played semi-pro in London before changing career paths.

The son of a Chilean diplomat, the Venezuela-born actor grew up all over the world. He stayed in Chile, London, Madrid, Romania, and Toronto. This allowed the actor to learn many languages such as Spanish, English, French and Italian.

During his drama studies, Cabrera appeared in various plays. He played the lead in The Last Days of Don Juan. While finishing his studies, he hit the small screen by playing roles in British series such as Battles of Britain, Judge John Deed, Spooks and As If.

His first appearance on US television was in the epic four-hour series Empire in which he played the role of Octavius, Julius Caesar's nephew. This role paved the way to bigger roles on TV and in movies such as Love and Other Disasters alongside Orlando Bloom and Heroes. He recently starred in Goal! 2: Living the Dream and is set to appear in Goal! 3, a series of movies about soccer.